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Thread: Drinking water and weight loss

  1. #1
    Stegodon
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    Default Drinking water and weight loss

    Why do I lose weight when I drink water more regularly? Or is the question really: why do I gain weight when I let myself get dehydrated?
    "It's Quite Cool." -Gandalf

  2. #2
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Drinking water and weight loss

    The explanation I'd read was that water creates the sensation of being full, so you don't snack instead and take in extra calories.

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    Free Exy Cluricaun's avatar
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    Default Re: Drinking water and weight loss

    Also if it's cold water your body has to warm it up (hence burning calories) before it can be processed.
    Hell, if I didn't do things just because they made me feel a bit ridiculous, I wouldn't have much of a social life. - Santo Rugger.

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    Default Re: Drinking water and weight loss

    Quote Originally posted by Cluricaun
    Also if it's cold water your body has to warm it up (hence burning calories) before it can be processed.
    That's not really true. It's based on the assumption that your body regulates temperature by burning more or less calories, but the only time your body actually burns extra calories to heat you up is when you are shivering; otherwise, it thermoregulates by doing things that don't change your energy expenditure like sweating more or less.

    Also, it would be hard to drink enough cold water to make any discernible difference in your energy expenditure even assuming you did have to spend extra energy just to heat water.

  5. #5
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Drinking water and weight loss

    What Excalibre said. That's like saying it takes more gas to run the heater in your car (not counting the extra electricity you'd use to turn the fan, of course). Your body has plenty of thermal energy to get rid of, heating up a relatively small amount of water isn't going to make a difference.

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    Oliphaunt
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    Default Re: Drinking water and weight loss

    Quote Originally posted by Excalibre
    Also, it would be hard to drink enough cold water to make any discernible difference in your energy expenditure even assuming you did have to spend extra energy just to heat water.
    Worse than hard. A single kilocalorie is the energy needed to raise the temperature of one litre of water one degree Celsius. Under the theory, if you drink five litres of freezing water a day you expend 185 kilocalories heating it up. Large charge.

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    Elephant
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    Default Re: Drinking water and weight loss

    And what you think is dehydration may not be. It takes a lot to be truly dehydrated; just because you're not drinking 64 ounces of water a day doesn't mean you are.
    There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. -- Ray Bradbury's "Coda"

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    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Drinking water and weight loss

    If you're making an effort to drink more water, are you by default not drinking things you'd normally drink? If subbing water in automatically cuts down on soda, sweetened tea/coffee, juice and beer, those are all extra calories you're cutting out because you're reaching for the water instead.
    Science flies you to the moon; religion flies you into buildings.

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    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Drinking water and weight loss

    Quote Originally posted by MsRobyn
    And what you think is dehydration may not be. It takes a lot to be truly dehydrated; just because you're not drinking 64 ounces of water a day doesn't mean you are.
    Are there different levels of dehydration? Because I know I'm personally more prone to pulled muscles when I'm not force feeding myself water throughout the day. Of course, my lack of flexibility doesn't help one iota, but I'm curious if there's medical grades similar to the frostbite scale.

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    Elephant
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    Default Re: Drinking water and weight loss

    I get muscle cramps if I don't drink enough, but one or two glasses of water is enough to fix the problem. And I'm certainly not an expert on dehydration, I've just had it enough to know what it is and what it should feel like.
    There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. -- Ray Bradbury's "Coda"

  11. #11
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Drinking water and weight loss

    I've always read that it's because fats are metabolized by the liver, which needs to be fully hydrated to metabolize fats effectively. But I have always doubted that a glass of water stands between obesity and thinness for most people. Unless you're severely dehydrated or a chronic alcoholic, I would put my money on the extra feeling of fullness plus the absence of less-healthy drinks. I notice that in my case I drop a few pounds whenever I get a notion to substitute water for margaritas.

  12. #12
    Oliphaunt
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    Default Re: Drinking water and weight loss

    Quote Originally posted by Alien Crouton
    But I have always doubted that a glass of water stands between obesity and thinness for most people.
    It doesn't stand between obesity and thinness for any people.
    Unless you're severely dehydrated or a chronic alcoholic, I would put my money on the extra feeling of fullness plus the absence of less-healthy drinks.
    Right on.

  13. #13
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Drinking water and weight loss

    Quote Originally posted by Inigo Montoya
    Why do I lose weight when I drink water more regularly? Or is the question really: why do I gain weight when I let myself get dehydrated?
    It's not so much that your drinking water more regularly as it is that your not drinking softdrinks as regularly as before. Beer, Coke and similar products, and even lemonade with sugar can have a lot of calories.

  14. #14
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Drinking water and weight loss

    FTR, the water replaces black coffee which is my unhealthy drink of choice. Black coffee is also my snack of choice. My heart hates me.

    I know I'm the one coming in here to have his ignorance punished, but I'm wondering if it really the water displacing calorie-laden stuff. Because I've also noticed:

    --daily intake of 1500 calories or less = no wieght loss even with 45 minutes of sweaty aerobic exercise
    --add water, some weight loss. About 1/2 pound/day
    --daily intake of 2000+ calories = weight GAIN even with exercise
    --add about 2 liters of water, weight loss = about 1/2 pound/day

    Basically, it doesn't seem to matter if I go to the gym or not or really even how much I eat. The weight loss comes from water consumption. this suggests to me that it's affecting fat metabolism. No?
    "It's Quite Cool." -Gandalf

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    Default Re: Drinking water and weight loss

    Quote Originally posted by Inigo Montoya
    this suggests to me that it's affecting fat metabolism. No?
    Well, maybe.

    If you're weighing yourself every day, which I am guessing you are from your post, you'll see a whole lot of fluctuation from day to day. The amount of mass we take in and expel in any given day is much larger than the amount of weight it's possible to lose in a day. So things like storing a little more water because you eat something salty will overwhelm the small effects created by changes in your metabolism.

    So it's possible what you're seeing is basically just coincidence -- it happened that way several times, just due to chance, and maybe some confirmation bias is making it seem more consistent than it really is.

    Also, research makes it clear that even people who are being careful with their diets are really hugely incorrect in their estimates of how much food they eat -- which means that maybe you are eating more calories when you drink less water, even if it's not obvious to you.

  16. #16
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Drinking water and weight loss

    Quote Originally posted by Inigo Montoya
    Basically, it doesn't seem to matter if I go to the gym or not or really even how much I eat.
    Wrong. Those things are the only things that matter when wanting to lose weight. You only did 45 minutes of aerobic exercise. I went from 120kg to 72kg (You do the conversion, I got no idea) in seven months by eating very little (Four tuna sandwiches a day. That's it.) and exercising a lot. I walked about 12 miles four days a week for the first 4 months and jogged 4 miles every day for the last 3. Those 45 minutes are just evening you off.


    Quote Originally posted by Inigo Montoya
    The weight loss comes from water consumption. this suggests to me that it's affecting fat metabolism. No?
    Seems like it.

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